Rural crime day of action around Yeovil

DOZENS of police officers and volunteers have visited farms across South Somerset in a special rural crime day of action.

They spoke last week with farmers and give out crime reduction advice and reassurance on how to protect their property, homes and livestock. Many farmers also took up the opportunity to arrange a personal crime prevention survey.

During the day police visited 190 farms in South Somerset and Mendip including villages around Crewkerne, Chard, Ilminster and Yeovil, plus Yeovil Marsh, Keinton Mandeville, Wincanton, Templecombe, Bruton, Somerton, Langport and Martock.

It led to 30 new Farmwatch sign-ups, two intelligence reports and 25 crime reduction survey requests. For those visits where residents were not in, 'Sorry we missed you' calling cards were left resulting in a legacy of our attendance. This may lead to further requests for sign up or crime reduction surveys.

According to the insurance company NFU Mutual, rural crime cost the UK £43m in 2012. In South Somerset over the past four months sheep worth £65,000 have been stolen. And during the recent harvest there were a number of reports of thousands of litres of fuel being stolen from combine harvesters left overnight in fields.

South Somerset rural crime officer PCSO Matt Tailby reported a very positive response from the 110 farms visited in the area during the day of action.

He said: "They were very keen to see us and to discuss how we could work together on rural crime. We encouraged them to report all crime to us, any suspicious incidents, even village rumours. Generally the message we were putting across was very well received."

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